


Five Times Shiro Made Keith Cry

by haganenoheichou



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Drama, Happy Ending, M/M, Pining, Pre-Canon, canon AU, keith cries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-04 11:05:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17303462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haganenoheichou/pseuds/haganenoheichou
Summary: As far as everyone was concerned, Takashi Shirogane was a perfect gentleman. As far as Keith Kogane was concerned, Takashi Shirogane was an asshole.No, he was a perfect gentleman; Keith could appreciate that. But he was also an asshole.Because Takashi Shirogane would never make anyone cry.Except for Keith.





	Five Times Shiro Made Keith Cry

**Author's Note:**

> Time to post my piece for the OTPlease Zine! Please feast your eyes on this drama/fluff fest!

As far as everyone was concerned, Takashi Shirogane was a perfect gentleman. He was kind, he was considerate, he was loyal to a fault, and he was handsome to boot. He was the type of guy who would help an old lady cross the road, then get her cat out of a tree and then also give his seat to said cat on a bus.

As far as Keith Kogane was concerned, Takashi Shirogane was an asshole.

No, he was a perfect gentleman; Keith could appreciate that. But he was also an asshole. He was an asshole and he didn’t even know about it.

Because Takashi Shirogane would never make anyone cry.

Except for Keith.

* * *

The first time Takashi Shirogane made him cry was during Garrison summer camp, somewhere between their daily – and mandatory – mock drills and dinnertime. Keith ended up there because the orphanage kids got to go somewhere nice every summer and this time, the Garrison decided to recruit them early by sponsoring this year’s trip.

It was an accident, really. Keith knew that. That didn’t mean that he wouldn’t throw a fit over it, not when Takashi Shirogane, a timid-looking flagpole of a child on the cusp of teenager-hood, accidentally ran into him and effectively mowed him down. Keith ended up falling flat on his butt. Right in front of all the other kids.

The other kids who hated his guts because he was quiet and weird, and he played with a knife of all things (honestly, most of the adults disliked him for that reason as well, but whenever they tried to wrestle it from him, they ran into one defiant child with some _very_ sharp teeth).

"Oh, sorry," Shirogane said as if it was nothing.

It wasn't nothing because the moment Keith realized what had happened, fingers were being pointed at him. Laughter. _Serves him right. Loser._

Someone patted Shirogane on the back, praising him with a whoop, but he brushed their hand off, instead leaning over and offering his own to Keith.

"Sorry about that," he said, a broad smile on his face. He had freckles. Really pale ones, but he had them, all sprinkled across his nose and cheeks. _Weird,_ Keith thought to himself.

He wanted to brush Shirogane's hand aside – there was too much pride at stake here, and he wasn't about to let his accidental attacker go so easily. And then he realized, weirdly enough, between the laughter around him and the pointed fingers and all that, that his eyes were wet.

His lower lip was wobbling.

Shirogane’s sympathetic face suddenly made sense. Meekly, Keith reached out and took his hand.

* * *

The second time Takashi Shirogane made him cry, they were tears of frustration.

“Goddamn it!”

Keith slammed his hands against the control panel, cursing under his breath, his entire body shaking with suppressed anger – well, poorly suppressed, some would say; like that upstart cargo pilot from his year.

He leaned his forehead against the controls, breathing hard. Months and months of exercise and hard work and he couldn’t beat the record. The record on which his entire damn pride hinged because he had to be the best at something, right? And he almost was.

Except he couldn’t beat this one record. Set by someone named Shiro. What kind of name was _Shiro_? Did this person even have a last name? Or were they like Cher or Madonna?

Either way, they were a hindrance to Keith’s plans. He wanted to become the best and then not let anyone else bother him until the very end of his course at the Garrison. It was a pretty solid plan.

"Hey, are you almost done? I want to lock up if you don't mind."

Keith snarled something absolutely not PG-13 over his shoulder, expecting the janitor to skedaddle, but instead, a heavy warm hand landed on his shoulder, creasing his sweaty uniform.

“So, you’re the prodigy with an attitude problem.”

Keith whipped around just as the man stepped into the light of the simulator, a smile playing on his face. Tall. Wide shoulders. Muscular arms.

And a very familiar face. Weathered by age and the stress of being in the most competitive space program in the world but very recognizable.

“Shirogane?” Keith asked incredulously.

The man froze. And then he strode forward and awkwardly put his arms around the new cadet, hugging him sideways over the seat of the simulator. Keith just sat there, his heart beating wildly, muscles locked in panic.

“Keith?! Keith, I can’t believe it’s you!”

That was what spurred Keith into action – he pushed against Shirogane’s chest and made him step away sheepishly.

“Uh, sorry… I get a little enthusiastic sometimes,” he said, scratching the back of his head. “I just… it’s so good to see you.”

 _Can’t say the same,_ Keith wanted to reply. Because who got excited about seeing someone they had only crossed paths with once, _years ago_ , in summer camp? Someone who had been a sourpuss through and through and remained jaded and anxious?

Things clicked then.

Shirogane. _Shiro_.

“ _You’re_ the one who set the record?" Keith asked, frowning at the man in disbelief. Shiro was pretty much a big teddy bear – it was apparent now, in the way his face softened when he'd realized who Keith was. There was no way this big softie could be the best pilot in the Garrison. Being the best required a competitive streak. Shiro, by the looks of it, had none.

But the faint blush that was barely visible in the dim light that spread onto his cheeks said otherwise.

“Yeah, kinda…” He said, playing with the hem of his uniform. Keith’s eyes narrowed when he saw the stars on his shoulders. Graduate. “I don’t know how that happened.”

 _Because everyone else in this place sucks,_ Keith thought. _And irony hates me so much it decided to throw you into my path_.

"But you're making outstanding progress," Shiro said, squinting at the screen. "You're in second place. That's amazing, for a first-year."

 _For a first-year_.

Keith pushed himself out of the seat, stung. Shiro must have realized that he'd said something wrong because his face turned apologetic, but Keith elbowed his way past him.

“Keith–,”

“I will beat you,” Keith grit out and stormed away, like a hurricane of teenage hormones and unexpected warmth that had spread all the way to the tips of his fingers when Shiro had looked at him like _that_.

He slammed the door behind himself but not before he heard Shiro say softly, _fondly_ :

“I’m looking forward to it.”

The _arrogance_ on this guy! Keith ran down the hallway to his room, ignoring the officer who tried to stop him and tell him off for being out of bed late. Angry tears stung at Keith's eyes, but in spite of that, he knew that he couldn't just let Shiro be the good guy _and_ the champion.

He flopped onto his cot and buried his face in the pillow, tasting salt.

 _I will beat you_.

* * *

The third time Takashi Shirogane made him cry, it was because Keith was a stupid piece of shit. Stupid and naïve.

It started off with a crush. A tiny crush, a fledgling of a feeling, that afflicted him when the trees became greener and smell of flowers filled the air in the little garden kept by the scientists at the Garrison. At first, he didn't really understand why it was that every time Shirogane looked at him, a swooping sensation jolted his stomach and jumbled up his head.

When he realized what it was, he felt dread.

Falling for Shiro was kind of a rite of passage at the Garrison, or so it seemed. At one point or other, girls, boys, and anyone in between or outside would get all starry-eyed around him. About eighty percent never made a move, choosing to instead stare at him longingly from the farthermost corner of the mess hall. The bravest and most reckless ones, though, would come up to him after class or a simulation, and twirl their hair or shuffle their feet as they made their uneasy confession.

Shiro's reaction was the same every time – and Keith knew because he had absolutely not watched it happen over and over again: he would blush, thank the person politely for honoring him with their attention, and that would be that. And Shiro did it in such a nice way, that even a rejection felt like a reward, and his would-never-be-suitors walked away with dopey smiles, utterly content.

About two percent, though, carried on lusting from afar. They watched Shiro work out (it was pretty creepy, Keith had to admit), sighing about the circumference of his biceps and the size of his deltoids (and other things that had nothing to do with the gym). They shot him sweet little smiles that were actually full of backhanded resentment, and he'd respond with an utterly sincere smile of his own.

Keith believed he was all and none of them. He never even considered telling Shiro how he felt about him because, in his head, Shiro was his rival. Someone to beat; which, Keith bitterly admitted, was proving harder than he would have thought. At the same time, he had enough of a conscience as to admit that he was crushing on Shiro. Hard.

His feelings morphed into something entirely different when the two of them somehow ended up spending time together. After hours, Shiro would walk into the simulator and find Keith there, battling imaginary space with gritted teeth. He'd sit down in the co-pilot's seat and wait it out while Keith finished (usually by crashing into something). Then he'd talk him through the simulation again. It seemed Shiro had every single level memorized to perfection.

Shiro’s pointers weren’t as annoying as those Keith’s professors gave him. They made sense. Nor was Shiro condescending like the officers of the Garrison. He was sincere in his help, and that made it all the more difficult for Keith to stop falling for him.

He fell hard. He fell so hard that eventually, the dam just broke and on one fine night between his third and fourth year, he blurted it all out.

He told Shiro everything – what he thought of his piloting, his sweaty back when he worked out, his undercut, his kind, soft voice. He told him what he thought of the fact that Shiro managed to capture everyone’s fancy and rejected all of them because he was so damn _noble_.

He told Shiro that out of the entire world, he was the only one who had ever made a positive difference in Keith’s life.

He told Shiro that he loved him. Hopelessly, entirely, his teenage heart was Shiro's. And not just his heart. All of him.

He yelled at Shiro, he screamed at him, told him how _stupid_ he was for being so amazing, and Shiro listened, eyes just a little bit wide. When he exhausted himself, Keith watched, his heart breaking, as Shiro placed a hand on top of his head and petted him as if he were a puppy.

Then Shiro thanked him. Told him he was flattered. Told him he was too young to commit himself to someone like Shiro.

Keith barely listened. He stormed away, pushing past the man who had become his refuge and didn't stop until he ended up deep in the desert, on his knees, shivering in the cold night.

He bit into his arm and screamed silently into the bruised flesh as he cried.

* * *

The fourth time Takashi Shirogane made him cry was when he woke up, feeling alone and cold in his bunk. He dangled his feet off the side of it when he sat up, hunched over his lap. He closed his eyes, feeling the morning tiredness set in.

Ever since Shiro had left on the Kerberos mission, waking up had been a chore. Keith was no fool, he had known from day one, ever since the mission crew had been announced, that it wouldn’t be easy.

He just hadn’t realized it would be this hard.

He went through the motions of each day, somehow still managing to fool himself into thinking that Shiro would at least give him a sign. Send him a message. Use the secure comm channels just to tell Keith he was okay.

He fooled himself into thinking that maybe Shiro would come back earlier, before the estimated date. That he would return from this mission, a hero; and the first person to congratulate him would be Keith. He'd wait for Shiro to walk into the mess hall, with medals on his chest, his usual dopey smile on his face, and he'd throw himself at Shiro and hug the living crap out of him.

Keith sometimes wondered where he came up with these ideas.

Instead of the _Love Actually-_ style reunion he pictured in his head, he got grey mundanity. He woke up, went to class, used the simulator, went to sleep. He ate in between, but he didn’t really feel like it. Even the upstart cargo pilot seemed to have pulled the brakes on his teasing, instead casting him looks that were almost… worried?

_Pitying?_

Keith wondered just how easy he was to read.

His academic performance slowly but surely went downhill. Despite being the best pilot in the Garrison, now that Shiro was _gone_ , he was one of the worst in every other subject. It wasn’t that he was stupid or something. There was just no point in trying to concentrate on things that felt nonsensical.

Someone made a joke about him being a military wife, waiting for Shiro to come home, and he snapped. He grabbed the idiot by the throat and pinned him down right on top of the mess hall table, snarling at him like an animal. It took three people to drag him off the guy who looked at him as if he’d seen a ghost.

He got two weeks of suspension for that.

He used them to lay in bed.

He sabotaged himself, at first accidentally; later, he started doing it on purpose. Shiro had been gone for almost a year, and there had been no news about the mission. Keith hated not knowing what was happening.

Until he suddenly knew and he wished he didn’t.

News of the Kerberos mission failure came on a chilly evening when the sky was strewn with stars. The Garrison had been taking dinner when the Captain walked into the mess hall, his face somber.

Keith wouldn’t remember what the announcement was like. All he’d remembered now was that his ears started to ring. He’d remember people’s eyes inadvertently turning toward him.

He’d remember running.

His chest felt tight, and his eyes stung, but he refused to cry; not until he reached Shiro's hoverbike parked in the garage, just as he'd left it. He grabbed the key he kept on a string around his neck and started the engine, taking off. He ran down the flimsy gate that kept the cadets inside Garrison premises and just drove.

He drove until he hit the sharp edge of a cliff and was forced to stop. In a daze, he realized that his temporary insanity had taken him to the abandoned hut Shiro and him had discovered once, during one of their impromptu training sessions.

He ended up sitting on the rickety porch. His chest was still as tight as it had felt back at the Garrison. His fingers trembled as they played with the frayed hems of his fingerless gloves.

When he cried, his face was turned up to the stars.

* * *

The fifth time Takashi Shirogane made him cry was different.

He had no idea how he had ended up there on his hover bike, crowded into the tiny space between the seat and the handlebars with four other people dragging him down. It didn’t matter, though – nothing mattered as long as he knew that Shiro was back. Alive. Different, but alive.

Then came the lion and the castle and all the crazy stuff that had led them to the discovery of aliens and intergalactic warfare. Everything happened so quickly that before he knew it, he found himself in front of the huge castle window, looking at the stars that zoomed by, all unfamiliar. They were a long way from Earth. He had already heard Lance and the others whine about it, about how homesick they were; but Keith knew that home had never been Earth to him.

“Can’t sleep?” Came a voice from behind him.

Home had always been Shiro.

Keith ducked his head, nodding as he watched Shiro approach him. The man had become even broader in the shoulders during his captivity, but besides that and the glaring differences – like his alien arm and the shocking white on his forelock – he was still the same. His eyes were still the same: kind, so impossibly kind; in spite of how haunted they got when they encountered things that triggered Shiro’s memories of his misfortune.

It pained Keith to know that the person standing next to him, the person who had always stood by him, had been hurt so much.

“It’s been pretty crazy,” Keith said as Shiro joined him. His presence was a nice, warm certainty; it was almost like an anchor, making Keith feel less like he was floating in the middle of nothingness.

Together, they watched as stars and meteors passed by.

“You’ve always been a night owl,” Shiro said with a fond chuckle and Keith’s heart clenched. Shiro remembered. Their time together at the Garrison, their late-night training sessions, Keith’s constant violation of the rules when he crept up to the roof at night. Shiro remembered it all.

“You were always a morning person,” Keith said with a small smile and Shiro chuckled.

“Yeah,” he breathed. “Now, I don’t even know when morning comes. It’s all so… confusing.”

Keith fought the intense urge to drop his hand into Shiro’s grasp.

“Do you think we’ll ever have a chance to go back?” Keith asked cautiously. His soft voice still sounded too loud for the stillness of the moment.

Shiro shifted next to him. “For the sake of the others, I’d hope so. But… I don’t know if I’d want to.”

“Hm?”

“I don’t know if there’s anything for me on Earth,” Shiro said quietly. “The moment my feet touched the ground, I was poked and prodded and drugged. I… if you hadn’t gotten me out of there, who knows what would’ve…” He trailed off, letting the sentence linger in the air between them.

This time, Keith did place a cautious hand on his human elbow. Shiro took a deep breath and looked up, at the ceiling of the castle which hung over them, tall and ominous.

“I don’t have anyone waiting for me there,” he said finally. “My family… I don’t have anyone there.”

Keith’s heart felt like it was being compressed inside of his chest, pushed and tightened to become a tiny, tiny little lump of feelings. His throat closed up and he felt intense sorrow for Shiro then – the kind of sorrow he had never felt for himself. “You have me.”

“ _Oh_.” The soft whisper of breath that rushed out of Shiro’s lungs was no louder than the sound of Keith’s pulse hammering away in his ears. His eyes met Shiro’s and all of a sudden looking away felt impossible.

“Keith, I couldn’t ask you to–,”

“Then stay here,” Keith said quickly. Shiro’s eyes searched his face and he sighed, reaching out to finally – _finally_ – squeeze his hand.

“Stay here with me.” His voice shook but for the first time in years, despite the prickling at the corners of his eyes, he felt almost… _free_. He knew they could die tomorrow. They could die this very moment. Suddenly, the idea that year, months, weeks ago, he had thought that Shiro finding out about his feelings would be a terrible thing, appeared ludicrous.

They were here. Alive. Together.

Among the stars.

“I don’t have anyone on Earth either,” Keith began, licking his lips pensively. He watched Shiro’s eyes slip to his mouth for just a split-second, and his chest filled with warmth – a feeling of hope he’d never allowed himself before. “But I have someone here. Someone… very important.”

His fingers slipped into the spaces between Shiro’s.

“So stay here with me.”

The next thing he knew was that he was breathing Shiro’s air. He was tasting Shiro on his lips, his tongue; feeling him everywhere – Shiro’s body felt like the warmth of a thousand suns as it wrapped around his own, enveloping him in a cocoon of what felt like _everything:_ all the uncertainty, all the pain, all the longing he had felt. All of it meshed together and turned into a rush that made his heart almost stop in its tracks as Takashi Shirogane kissed him, tasting the salt of his tears.

When they pulled apart, Keith didn’t want to open his eyes; just in case all this had been a delirious dream. Until Shiro’s gentle, human thumb slid over his cheekbone and wiped away the tear he hadn’t even felt there.

He felt Shiro’s lips, so full of life, so full of promise, descend onto his own, and that was when he knew: nobody was worth his tears.

Except Takashi Shirogane.

**Author's Note:**

> Drop me a line on [Tumblr](http://haganenoheichou.tumblr.com) if you'd like <3


End file.
